Billiards Long-up format - Doyle Vs Drennan
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The National Billiards Long-up Championships, preliminary rounds down to the last two, took place at the Ivy Rooms Snooker Club, Carlow on Sunday, 16th April 2017. A total of 8 players contested the event, which meant effectively that only two rounds were played, the quarter finals and the semis.

The quarter finals in the top half of the draw produced clear wins for Wayne Doyle (Q-Club Wicklow) and Brendan Devlin (Celbridge), Wayne scoring well in his game against Eugene Hughes (Baltinglass), while Brendan took advantage of a loss of form being suffered by his regular practice partner Robert McCrum (Portmarnock). By contrast, the quarter finals in the bottom half of the draw produced very close finishes, Joe Doheny (Borris-in-Ossory) finishing just 18 points clear of John Kehoe (Enniscorthy), while Larry Drennan (Kilkenny Shed) won his quarter final against regular practice partner Aidan Murray (Ivy Rooms) by a mere 13 points.

In the first of the semi finals, Wayne and Brendan were matching each other point for point until, with a break of 93, Wayne established a solid lead. From then on, Wayne was clearly in command, scoring more heavily when at the table, finishing well clear of Brendan at the finish, wrapping up the game with an unfinished 55. In the other semi final, Larry was always in charge, scoring the better of the two at each visit, finishing almost 200 points clear of Joe to claim his place in the Final.

Congratulations and best of luck to Larry and Wayne who won through to their places in the Final to be played as part of the RIBSA Finals weekend in May.

As always, our thanks are due to Marian and the staff at the Ivy Rooms for the excellent playing conditions and for their help on the day.

PJ Nolan is an official W.P.B.S.A coach and the current Irish National Coach and Development Officer. PJ is known worldwide as one of the finest snooker coaches having worked all over the world with countries such as Qatar, India, UAE, Iran, Israel and many more.